Florence County

He's the Wisconsin Association of School Board Director of Member Services.

Ben was the Florence County Public School Superintendent from 2013 to 2021.

Florence is a small, rural, poor county in far northeastern Wisconsin that actually was set to close due to several budget shortfalls.

It really should have combined itself with other small neighboring communities like Goodman, Niagara, Pembine, but pride and stubbornness kept it open.

In 2021, Ben landed a job as the director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.

Quite the accomplishment from a rural superintendent who was just several years earlier, was just a school business teacher.

And Ben wasn't shy to tell his friends that it was his ability to get the referendum passed in a poor place like Florence County that got him this job.

Let me interject.

You can go to UW-Madison.

If you just want to Google the economic impact report, and on there, it breaks the state up into the economic impact in northeast Wisconsin, up Iron County, Forest County, Florence County, those areas.

It demonstrates what the economic impact is up there.

Northwest, all the regions of the state.

Which is the one you're not in?

We are not in Florence County.

Oh, in Flo- okay.

It's a very small county-

So until we get to Michigan-

Mm-hmm

... we won't be in Florence County, unfortunately.

Okay.